


Alone

by 1_NoName_among_many



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Bruno Spencer (Philip's Equerry), Gen, Kid Fic, Little Prince Harry, Little Princess Cathy, Mazzy doesn't want to be alone, Movie Night, The OC's are:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27587506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1_NoName_among_many/pseuds/1_NoName_among_many
Summary: Mazzy misses her darling Pippy
Relationships: Martha Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor & Alex Claremont-Diaz, Martha Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor & Percy "Pez" Okonjo
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story happens during the three month time skip near the end of [Anchors](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27464893).

Mazzy was at Anmer Hall, in one of the guest apartments. Staying in her and Pippy's rooms, with the big, cold empty spot next to her for the next few months at least would have been too much.  
Today was a personal day. She was sitting on the couch in her nightgown and robe, eating ice cream from the tub and watching Downton Abbey. It was early in her binge; the tub wasn't even a quarter empty and Lady Mary had just met the dashing Turkish diplomat.  
"Excuse me, boss."  
Mazzy sighed at the interruption and paused the television. "Yes, Mr. Spencer?"  
"Mr. Okonjo is here to see you."  
"Bruno, Bruno, Bruno, how many times do I have to tell you!" Pez complained. "Mr. Okonjo is my father! Call me Pez, like the sweets."  
In response, the equerry looked Pez right in the eye and said, "No."  
Mazzy waved to dismiss Bruno and got up from the couch. "Just live with it, you know how Bruno is with aristocrats."  
"Well, it's nice that he thinks of me that way," Pez replied, "except, _I'm a commoner just like you!_ "  
"No, you're not," Bruno shouted back.  
Pez rolled his eyes. "Such insubordination, how do you live with him?"  
"Why are you here, Pez?" Mazzy asked.  
"I wanted to check up on you."  
"Why?"  
"That's what friends do."  
"But I cursed out Henry and Beatrice. How are we still friends?"  
"Henry forgives easily, and you never actually cursed him out. As for Beatrice," Pez took a letter from his coat pocket, "she wanted me to give you her apology."  
"Why would she apologize to me?" Mazzy said, taking the letter. "She didn't do anything wrong, other than get addicted to coke, which ultimately saved Pip's life." She opened it and started reading.  
"Something about making an amends? I think it's one of those sponsor things," Pez explained. "And you are surprisingly magnanimous about this."  
Mazzy hummed absently. She finished the letter, then went to the desk. She turned the letter over and started writing on the back. When she was finished, she signed it and put it in a new envelope. "Tell her I accept her apology, and that I hope she accepts mine. Pip's episode unlocked a lot of anger I didn't know I had over that period of our life. I lost control, but I've talked to my therapist, and I'm letting myself grieve properly now."  
"Hence the tub of ice cream and Downton Abbey," Pez observed, taking the new letter.  
"Exactly."  
"Anything I can do, Maz?"  
"We're not that kind of friends, Pez."  
"Frankly, I don't think you have a lot of friends."  
"Excuse you, I have loads of friends!"  
"Oh really?" Pez quirked an eyebrow in defiance. "Name five."  
"The Honourable Trent Talbot, Lady Agatha's son, the one who's always quail hunting; The Honourable Mat Cheltenham, soon to be Viscount Cheltenham, provided his uncle doesn't get in the way; erm, and, erm, oh _bother_.  
"Yes?"  
"Philip, Bruno and you."  
"Mm-hmm!"  
"Excuse me, boss."  
Mazzy sighed and rolled her eyes. "What now, Mr. Spencer?"  
"Mr. Claremont-Diaz is here to see you."  
"Why?"  
"Something about royal wives having to stick together?"  
"Also, Henry insisted." Alex added.  
" _Why?_ " Mazzy asked, incredulous. "I disparaged your relationship!"  
"Maybe, but you didn't mean it."  
"And how do you know that?"  
"Henry explained how you work. You're only angry when you cuss, and you didn't even use bowdlerized swears when talking about Henry and me."  
"I still called you names though. And disparaged your faith."  
"I consider 'manic pixie dream boy' to be a compliment, and Anglicans are discount Catholics."  
"Why you little-!" Mazzy growled. She grit her teeth and stepped back from the situation. "I guess I deserve that. Does this mean we're even now?"  
"Oh, no," Alex said, "you still gotta apologize to Bea. She's my friend too, you know."  
"I gave Pez the letter just now."  
"What, you're not doing it in person?"  
"If it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me," Mazzy declared. "Besides, I have anger issues. I don't trust myself, or my hands, around her yet."  
"Fair enough." Alex glanced at the TV. "Is that Downton Abbey?"  
"Oh yes, you want to watch with me? I'm only on the third episode. You're invited too, Pez."  
"Eh, if I wanted to fawn over British aristocrats, I'd be with Henry right now," Alex said.  
"Same, honestly," Pez added.  
"Fair enough," Mazzy said as she returned to her spot on the couch and her melting ice cream. She considered her options. On the one hand, she had planned on being alone all day. On the other, she didn't want to be alone all day. She made a decision. "I don't much like this episode myself. We've got plenty of movies to watch, though." She backed out of Downton and opened the movie folder. "See anything you like?"  
Alex immediately did. "You have all eight Harry Potter movies? Which of y'all's the Potter-head?"  
"Oh, those are Pip's," Mazzy explained. "He only has them for Professor McGonagall. He's a huge Dame Maggie fan."  
"Ah."  
" _Keeping Mum_?" Pez asked.  
"Oh, that's my favorite of her movies!" Mazzy immediately brightened. "She plays a homicidal maniac!"  
"What?" Both boys were startled, not so much at what the princess said, but at the casual, if not eager, way she said it.  
"A homicidal maniac," Mazzy said again. "Please can we watch it? It's also got Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling vicar, Kristin Scott Thomas as his beleaguered wife and Patrick Swayze as an evil American." She did spooky hands over the "evil".  
"What kind of evil American?" Alex asked, more than a little skeptical.  
"Texan, I think, but that's based only on the drawl."  
"Ooh, now we have to watch it!" Pez declared, sitting next to Mazzy. "If only to find out how a real Texan would handle it!"  
"Oh please, I can handle a little unfair stereotyping," Alex said, sitting on the other side of the princess.  
"Twenty quid says you're hucking things at the telly by the end of it," Mazzy said.  
"You're on!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, _Keeping Mum_ is a real movie, and yes Dame Maggie Smith really does play a homicidal maniac in it, and no, Mazzy is not exaggerating when she says Patrick Swayze is playing an evil American. All I will say on the matter is that he deserves what he gets.


	2. Chapter 2

"I _hate_ Lance!" Alex handed over the twenty pound note.  
"Don't we all," Mazzy soothed, taking the note. "What shall we watch next?"  
"Mama?" a little voice said behind the group. All three adults turned to find little Princess Cathy in the doorway. "Where's Papa?"  
At that moment, the nanny appeared, carrying little Prince Harry. "I'm so sorry, Your Highness!" she said. "Harry was putting up a fuss, and when I turned around Cathy was gone!"  
"It's alright, nanny. I'll take them now," the princess got up and took little Cathy by the hand and little Harry from the exhausted nanny's arms. "You go have a rest. I'll bring them back at the end of the day."  
"Thank you, ma'am," the nanny curtsied in deference, "and again, I'm so sorry!" She left.  
"Mama," Cathy asked again, "where's Papa?"  
"Clever little princess," her mother chided, "did you collude with Harry or just take an opportunity when you saw it?"  
" _Mama_ ," Cathy asked again, with a little more insistence, "where's _Papa_?"  
"Yeah!" Harry chimed in, "Where's Papa!"  
"You should probably answer them, Maz," Pez said in. "I've got a lot of niblings, and at this age, nothing would dissuade them from getting the answers they sought."  
"Yeah!" Alex chimed in. "Besides, where _is_ Papa?"  
"Don't you start too, Alex!" Mazzy said. "Now move aside, both of you."  
Once the royals were situated between the commoners, Mazzy began answering her children's question.   
"Papa is in hospital. He's ill."  
"Ill like the duchess?" Cathy asked.   
"Oh, no, good grief, no! He's ill like Grandmama. You know, the queen?"  
"Gra'mama's ill?" Harry asked. "How?"  
"Grandmama, and Papa, have what is known as bipolar disorder. You know how sometimes it's hard to control your feelings? You get a little too angry and throw a tantrum, or a little too sad and cry and cry?"  
Both royal twins nodded.  
"Well, for someone with bipolar, it's like that all the time. When they're high, their anger and sadness and even happiness are just too big to handle. And when they're low, they get too sad even to cry."  
"That's terribible!" Cathy declared.  
"It is, but Grandmama got the help she needs to get control of her feelings, and Papa's in hospital now to get that help."  
"When will he be back? Cathy asked.  
"He might be back in a few months, it might take up to a year"  
"A year!" Harry piped up, "but that's forever!"  
"I agree," the mother and wife sighed, leaning back into the couch. "But it can't be helped. When you forgo getting help as long as Papa did, you don't have a lot options for that help."  
The twins leaned against their mother, deep in thought.   
"Harry's been fussing a lot since Papa left," Cathy suddenly said. "Does he need to go to hopsital too?"  
"Tattle-tale!" Harry protested.  
Cathy stuck her tongue out in defiance.  
"Children, children!" their mother intervened. "No, he doesn't, that's normal for a child your age. And even if it weren't, you wouldn't go to the same hospital as Papa. His only serves grown-ups."  
"Oh."  
"Do the peeple know?" Harry asked.  
"No, they don't," Mazzy answered. "And we can't risk them finding out, so we can't visit, I'm sorry."  
"Rats."  
Cathy finally noticed the telly. "What are you watching?"  
"Movies. Want to watch with us? I'll let you pick." She surreptitiously opened the kid's movie folder, then gave Harry the remote.  
"Ooh, Nanny McPhee!"  
"That's the second one, Harry," Cathy said. "We never did get to see the first one."  
"Yeah, you're right. Why not?"  
"Pro'lly because it doesn't have Dame Maggie in it," Alex chimed in.  
"Alex!" Mazzy chided.  
They ended up watching both Nanny McPhee movies.


End file.
